Mostly about games, but with occasional detours into other nerdy territories.

Kickstarter Roundup

This is a pretty good time for kickstarter. Good enough that I regret I didn’t write this up last week, before Dawning Star finished up. But there are still some great outstanding options.

First, we’re down to the wire on Harry Connolly’s The Great Way. It’s funded, but you can still get in before it closes, and it’s going to be a treat. Connolly is a great writer (his 20 Palaces series is one of my favorites) and I’m really excited for this. If you’re on the fence, he’s released a lot of early chapters on the KS page, so you can always take a taste.

Next, I’m intrigued by the Chronos Larp System. I’m not a LARP guy, and it’s possible I may never even use this, but it seems like they’re doing some interesting things with the technology, and I’m always a proponent of that.

I’ve also backed Tianxia. I’m very curious about this – Kung Fu games can very easily go off the rails, but at the same time, this looks like it might be a way to do Jade Empires with Fate, and that is something I woudl dearly like to do.

Speaking of Fate, I’ve also backed Aeon Wave, a cyberpunk setup for Fate, at least in part because the creator has said nice things about me (hey, I’m human). Also because I’m a big cyberpunk nerd, and I’m OK with that.

One kickstarter I haven’t backed yet but am looking very closely at is the latest from Monte Cook Games, The Strange. It’s a new setting using the same system as Numenera (the cypher system) but rather than far future weirdness it seems to be multi-dimensional weirdness. I’m torn on this one. On the plus side, it’s a genre I love, and it’s a good enough match for the Cypher system that it was one of my first thoughts on how I would repurpose it. On the negative side, the Cypher system didn’t really grab me, and this is a pricey kickstarter[1]. MCG is doing something curious with the shipping, basically giving a $10 credit towards shipping as part of the tiers rather than folding it in. That seems like a smart (if bookkeeping intensive) way to address certain shipping concerns, but I admit it adds some uncertainty to my approach, since I don’t know if I’m signing on for extra shipping costs.

There’s no fear of this kickstarter failing – it’s at 200% at a couple days in, and is on track to bring in the same kind of hundreds of thousands of dollars that Numenera did, so I can afford to wait a few weeks and see how the stretch goals pan out to see what kind of value I get. The tiebreaker will probably be whether or not I ever get my Numenera hardcover from the previous kickstarter (which I haven’t).

One last kickstarter has nothing to do with gaming, but it just kind of neat: Set Chopin Free. This is a little nerdy, but the nature of copyright is such that even if a piece of music (like the works of Chopin) are in the public domain, that does not necessarily mean that there are any performances in the public domain. This project (and others like it) use the funding to hire a bunch of musicians and make those public recordings. This is much more of a good cause than something to buy (though, of course, there is swag) but it’s a bucket I was happy to throw a few bucks in.

Anyway, these are the things I have my eye on or my money in at the moment. If you have any other cool ones to call out, go ahead and add them to the comments!

Worlds of Magic – Video game with turn based fantasy battle and procedurally generated maps. Sweet combination and looks fun, but I admit the pledge levels confuse me a bit.

Adventures in the East Mark – Honestly, I have no idea how this is as a game, but as a product, it clearly looks *gorgeous*. And, importantly, its PDF Buy-in level os $10, which is (for me) the perfect “I’m curious but uncertain” price point.

Not to say that you don’t get value for the cost, only that the cost is high. MCG has, to my mind, embraced the idea that they’re producing luxury goods and that seems to be working pretty well for them. ↩

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10 thoughts on “Kickstarter Roundup”

Nice round-up. Tianxia looks great. They seem to have taken a similar approach to their genre as we did: Find the core of that genre, give it special treatment, and let Fate Core do the heavy lifting for the other parts. Specifically, the martial arts aspects seem very well thought out. Also, Solis.

I’m in the same boat as you on the Strange. Normally, I would have backed this without a second thought. However, it seems like it’s just too close to the heels of the Numenera KS. I haven’t even had a chance to play it. Combined with the fact that the system doesn’t grab me instinctively and it’s priced on the high side, I’m sitting this one out. The fact is, I’m confident I can get it significantly cheaper on Amazon later if I change my mind. Numenera’s selling for $35 right now.

Adventures in the East Mark is going to lose a lot of pledges thanks to their Explorer Class preview.

Apparently they have completed 70% of their translation work. I really hope the standard of translation is much higher than that demonstrated in the pdf. I cant help feeling thought, that they will have showcased their best work, in which case I’m definitely not backing this.

@Declan
I’d be interested to know what about the class preview you feel shows poor translation. We are very interested in fan feedback to improve our final product.

We have lots of steps planned to put our best foot forward:
1. Translation done by a native Spanish speaker and experienced RPG contributor
2. Editor John Adamus scheduled to come on board once full translation done
3. Release of PDF to backers for a period prior to going to press

I will note that the text is intentionally written in an “old world style” (as demonstrated in this article).